Alta Airport (Norwegian: Alta lufthavn; IATA: ALF, ICAO: ENAT) is an international airport serving Alta, a town and municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The airport is located at Elvebakken, 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) northeast of Bossekop in Alta. It has a single, 2,253-meter (7,392 ft) runway numbered 11–29, which lies on the southern shore of the Altafjord. Alta Airport is owned and operated by the state-owned Avinor, and served 335,621 passengers in 2011, making it the busiest airport in Finnmark.
The airport is served by Norwegian Air Shuttle and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) with Boeing 737 aircraft on flights to Tromsø and Oslo. Widerøe operates services to several regional airports in Finnmark, feeding to the larger airlines'routes. There are a limited number of international charter flights. The first airport in the area was a military airfield built by the Luftwaffe in 1943, but was damaged beyond repair during World War II. The civilian airport opened on 4 May 1963. At first services were provided by SAS to other primary airports in the north and to Oslo, but in the 1970s, several regional airports opened in Finnmark, with Widerøe flying connecting flights to them. Alta Airport's regional important increased in 1990, when it became a hub for the newly created SAS Commuter. Norwegian started flying to Alta in 2003 and a new terminal building was opened in 2009.
Read more about Alta Airport: Facilities, Airlines and Destinations, Future
Famous quotes containing the word airport:
“Airplanes are invariably scheduled to depart at such times as 7:54, 9:21 or 11:37. This extreme specificity has the effect on the novice of instilling in him the twin beliefs that he will be arriving at 10:08, 1:43 or 4:22, and that he should get to the airport on time. These beliefs are not only erroneous but actually unhealthy.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)